Wednesday, December 1, 2010

short post 12/2

In “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving,” author Lila Abu-Lughod examines the lack of ability to accept differences of women of different cultures. The events of 9/11 has permanently changed our country and they way we view those of Middle Eastern descent. The veil that Muslim women where is part of their culture and a deep seeded tradition. While we may see it as oppressive it is simply a part of there culture. My Aunt is Muslim and where’s a hijab, or head covering.You can use a lot of words to describe her but oppressed is not one of them she is very independent but insists on wearing the hijab whatever the social repercussions may be. Abu-Lughod talks about how different experiences social, political and historical shape who we are and how we assimilate into society. Basically this means that people are product of their environment. Just because someone has different beliefs than we do we must learn to respect other religions and cultures and not condemn people for being different. In our effort to help others a lot of the time we actually do more harm then good.

3 comments:

I think Sterling brings up an interesting point that in our attempts to better the world and bring rights to all, we sometimes encroach too much into the lives of others. We need to take a step back to see that our ideals may not line up with those of others and we may do much more to hurt them than to improve them, even if that is our true intention.

I would agree that in general, the United States is not good at accepting other countries cultures and beliefs. Our country has a long history of imposing our beliefs on countries and people that we deem inferior. Usually there are long term consequences to this, that result in a backlash against Western culture.

I agree with Sterling in that instead of thinking that we are helping others, we are actually harming them because as a result we are de-valuating their beliefs. Wearing a hijab is for many woman a symbol of pride in their identity which ties in both cultural and religious beliefs. The US needs to stop imposing its liberal beliefs on others, after all we are allowed freedom of religion. France is the perfect example of how this went wrong because they have banned muslim women from wearing their hijab in public areas such as at work or in school because supposedly the government felt like they were doing these muslim women of favor. Instead of liberating these women, they have instead offended many. In the first place, muslim women are not forced to wear the hijab, those that do wear it do so by choice!